where do I put resources (images, audio files) when I wrote Python program?

Dave Angel davea at ieee.org
Mon Jul 27 16:53:12 EDT 2009


Piotrek wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I write a Python program. It will contain some images (in .png format), some
> audio files (as .ogg) etc. Now I think where should my installer put these
> files and how should I access them. What is the normal Python way of doing
> that? I think about puting these files in /usr/share/myprogram and then
> reading it the normal way (so the path "/usr/share/myprogram" would be just
> hardwired in my program). Is it the way one usually does it in Python
> program or is there any more sofisticated way?
>
>
>   
I think this question is mostly independent of the issue of what's used 
to actually install the files.

My answer is to put read-only files right with the py* files, and 
writable files in the user's space.  In the former case, you can find 
the files by parsing __file__ for one of your modules.  In the latter 
case, it's system dependent.  But I'd start with a single file which is 
put in a conventional place (for your target OS).  That will be a 
configuration file ("preferences files"), which specifies, among other 
things, where everything else will be written.  Somebody else will have 
to tell you what the Unix convention would be.

In the case of Windows, the first "file" would just be a registry 
entry.  And I wouldn't write any of the actual files till the user had 
configured things, either during installation or during the first run 
(with a File->Preferences menu setup).





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